Posts in category Occupy Wall Street

Sometimes we win. Democracy is happening in some corners of the world where it is being demanded… David Graeber writes a great new book called The Democracy Project and it is an exciting read I must say. The End of Work as we know it Study Substantiates Benefits Of Cannabinoids For Post Traumatic Stress Marijuana […]

Obviously education, cultural discourse, etc. are important, but it is my belief that–especially if we are to recapitulate the technocratic dream/nightmare and recenter our lives around sustainability and ecological material and social dynamics, politics MUST follow from culture and culture MUST follow from the actually existing systems of communication and material production. Communication has been to a significant degree already democratized by the Internet and its concomitant systems (smart phones, etc., though these remain heavily class-regulated) (though there is certainly a fight there to be had as well, currently on terms of Intellectual Property but quickly heading toward a larger enclosure movement of corporate fiefdoms, and there is certainly dangers even in the Internet as such relating to the virtualization of reality and our giving up control of these virtualizations to alien entities–e.g. Google’s mechanization of cartography), so it is in the realm of material production–that is, the realm of physical material and space, the realm of the land and resources–that Occupy must focus, in my opinion (as it did originally, with the actually existing occupation of land itself).

First make yourself a nice cutting template out of a cutting board or a clip board, either a plastic one or something like the bamboo one I’ve got. It’s nice to have a clip on it and with a little care it will last quite a while. I’ve used a nice little bamboo cutting board I had laying around that was too small to really use as a cutting board anyway… nice to see it in service.

The duct tape I have is 1 7/8’s inches wide so a square needs to be 1 7/8 inches x 1 7/8 inches. So that means our template should be 11 3/8’s inches long from which we’ll get six squares out of each strip of tape and it’s up to you how many strips you get out of each clip board. Theoretically you could get four or five of your friends and do an entire case of clip boards.

I know, you’re saying; “That’s radical Mr. Badweather”. You’re getting to be as much an anarchist as that crazy catholic friend of yours Fr. McKenzie who is an anonymous supporter who thinks we couldn’t really change the direction the world is going without those willing to risk arrest in the digital world as well as those willing to risk being arrested for traditional “brick and mortar” civil disobedience. He’s convinced that “In a technocracy, hacktivism is both an inevitable development as well as completely necessary if we are to bring those democratic principles to the forefront of hunanities cultures and allow it to continue to influence the earth in the general direction of democracy.” As crazy as this seems, it does seem to be working judging from the poor response of late to all the austerity talk and its being roundly rejected by many countries, Iceland, Ireland, Greece, France, and it looks like Spain as well.

Fr. McKenzie says he doesn’t get it, but that he thinks Americans have lost the gene that codes for “dissent” in a large swath of the population leading to a kind of “hyperapathy”. I keep telling him that it’s just like a lot of deer caught in the headlights of a declining American empire and we can all see the gravy train of “civilization” is in serious danger. I think we don’t want that much change and many people would rather continue as a plundering nation if the alternative is to live on a quarter of what we’re used to in order to really save this place. Like Upton Sinclair said; “It’s hard to make a man aware when his paycheck depends upon his ignorance.”

I want to talk to my democrat friends who are in the fight to help Obama win in 2012. One person, even if he’s the president, can’t really change things in America. But I still believe the work you’re doing is important to do. I also want to talk to my friends in Occupy Wall Street, this involves everyone. We’ve been dealing with a lot of issues lately, particularly the question of whether the 99% spring is a co-opting of the movement, moveon.org, etc. which has pushed people to having that conversation so I think all this is relevant to the movement as well.

Regardless of the fact I no longer consider myself a democrat and that I think it is important to work outside the system, I am still proud of the fact that I was a significant part of Obama’s election in 2008. I was the head organizer of the Indianapolis ACORN office at that time, I found and trained all the initial people and together we built a GOTV operation that in the end employed almost 400 registrars and registered 24,500 new voters in Indianapolis. The last time Indiana went blue was 1967 and it’s only done that three times. So that isn’t something that I’m going to look back on and think; “What a waste of time…” Organizing is what it is and politics is the art of the possible. I do not think it was foolish. I did what I thought was the right thing. I would do it again because at the time, it seemed like the right choice and in fact I still believe it was.

I want you to know, that I hope Barack Obama wins if the alternative is Mitt Romney if for no other reason than the fact that Mitt will appoint terrible supreme court justices. I think I and many other people will prefer Obama’s pick for the highest court in the nation.

I look at the long haul. I’m willing to fight all your fights with you, I always vote for who I think will be best for the country, not just my own personal views.

On the issue of health care, I’m hopeful and grateful for the work that has been done by everyone but I know there is much more to do. I have serious health issues, reforming this system matters to me personally. I’m of the belief that “some disassembly may be required”, but that doesn’t mean I think we can’t save some parts of the world as we know it. We just have to sort through it all together and see what’s important to us.

So please don’t treat me like a dirty hippie pariah for saying that I’m not happy with Obama. I’m not an “herbal tea bagger”, I don’t think he’s evil, I’m just justifiably dismayed and righteously angry at the failure of so many of his campaign promises. The system seems to have absorbed him.

I’m just sick of being marginalized in my own country for having chosen the safer alternative recreational drugs over alcohol [1].

Co-ops are pretty much the answer we’re looking for, they’re democratically organized and so they serve not only our purpose of replacing corporate goods with our own, but also increasing activism in general and building community all at the same time. Getting all this put in place will be the fight of our lives I imagine.

Occupy Quad Cities, in solidarity with global calls for a general strike, will hold an International Workers Day Rally at LeClaire park in Davenport, IA on May 1st. All are welcome to join us and demand justice for workers everywhere. There will be speakers on workers rights after which we will convene the Occupy Quad […]

I’m really pretty freaked out by this patch of day lilies growing already. There are lots of things popping up in the backyard, I could probably plant kale right now… bugs are gnawing away at the trees and don’t be surprised if there is a late hard freeze that kills a lot of fruit trees. We’re going to pay somehow for these “nice” days… I was standing outside three or four days ago and thinking that I really miss winter. In the middle of February, I’m thinking nostalgically of this passing “winter”.

Sorry, this is older stuff, just playing catch up with the news (from the last few days) that doesn’t quite make it to the front page or not at all into the lamestream media… Here for your enjoyment, or torment or whatever we do with this awareness… email it to your conservative brothers and sisters! […]